Spinning Yarns: Downtown shop offers Wabash Valley a creative outlet
By Alicia Morgan
TERRE HAUTE — There’s just something about a homemade gift.
If it’s canned tomatoes from your grandmother’s summer garden, they embody her hard work of keeping her plants healthy, her hands carefully picking the fruit from the vine and the effort she took to peel, cut and preserve the tomatoes. If it’s a child’s rocking chair, it has Grandpa’s precise measurements, woodworking and labor embedded in it. And if it’s a blanket the nurses laid over your newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit, it has the hours of work, critical eye for detail and love of a knitter wrapped up in it.
“I can make things for family and friends, one-of-a-kind items — different textures, colors,” said Carolyn Murphy of Louisville, Ky., who was attending a class at a downtown yarn shop earlier this month.
“Everybody got a knitted something from me this year” for Christmas, Murphy said. “My grandson got a hat and a scarf in his school colors, my granddaughter got a hat and a scarf in her favorite colors and a shawl, my daughter got a felted hat and a scarf and fingerless gloves, lace, cashmere, daughter-in-law got a sweater, 6-month-old granddaughter got a romper with ruffles on the behind.”
Murphy, a former Terre Haute resident, was in town for the class and a trunk show at “River Wools – a Knitting place.”
The store serves as a classroom, yarn shop and meeting place for all who love to knit. The Knitting Guild meets on the first Monday of each month at the shop. Open knitting events are scheduled twice a week.
Anyone who would like to sit and knit or work on a project is invited to the free gathering.
“People just come and hang out together and knit or crochet,” owner Martha Crossen said.
“It’s a great door-opener to talking to people,” Murphy said.
“And I think it’s also community-building,” Crossen said. “There are people who come here and become a part of our little subset of the community. But also there are groups of people in churches and other community organizations doing work for people in need through their love of fiber arts.”
River Wools also serves as an “information referral place,” Crossen said. If a group is doing charity work in the community, they will let the shop know. “People come here with articles they have knitted and want to contribute to some kind of effort.”
“I knit things for charity,” Murphy said. “Hats for homeless, sweaters for orphanages for children around the world. Every so often I think, well, I need a new sweater for myself and I seldom get that done; I do better at knitting for other people.”
“We did socks for the [Race for the] Cure. We had about … 35 pairs of socks knitted by our customers,” Crossen said. “The yarn was donated by some of our yarn companies.” The socks were then auctioned at the Race in October. “We also had a team in the race,” she added.
Murphy suggests searching online for groups in need of donations.
Knitting therapy
The recipient of a knitted gift isn’t the only one benefiting from the craft. It’s also an outlet for the knitter.
“Of course you get something, whatever project you’re working on, assuming you finish it,” Crossen said with a laugh. “But more than that, for me, and I think for a lot of our customers … it’s entertainment, and it is a creative outlet.
“I think for some people it really is an important part of their mental health care. We have several customers who have integrated their love of fiber and how they use it into recovering from a situation that involves a lot of grief or a lot of chaos in their lives. It’s been kind of a constant and they tell us that.”
Murphy also finds it therapeutic.
“It helps my creative side to come out. It’s a very soothing, relaxing thing, and it’s portable. I can knit anywhere. I knit at the doctor’s office. I knit in long lines. I knit in the car. It’s one of the most portable things you can do,” she said.
It’s also an outlet for frustration. “It’s a great therapeutic thing to do when you’re really ticked off at a child or a husband or the neighbor,” Murphy said, laughing.
“I tell my husband ‘I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t go to a therapist.’ This is my therapy,” said Janet Burson of Casey, Ill., who frequents River Wools. “I’m in here all the time.”
Teaching the craft
Crossen opened River Wools in May 2004. Since then, she says she has “learned a lot about fiber and a lot about knitting, a lot about crocheting and weaving, but I’ve also learned a lot about business and about people. I would say I learn something new about the craft … every day. There’s always somebody doing something new … some new fiber coming out. We have fibers now that even five years ago we didn’t have access to, sugarcane fiber and soy and lots of bamboo.
“About the time I opened, I think [knitting] started being a lot more trendy. And part of it is just what’s available. There’s so much variety. There’s really something for every taste … from really wild stuff to really traditional.”
Crossen said her Thursday Open Knitting group tends to attract a younger yet still diverse crowd. More college-age people attend the Thursday evening meeting.
“We’d like to get more and more young people involved. And there are more and more young people getting involved.” Crossen said, although, at this point, they haven’t become “joiners.”
River Wools offers children’s knitting and crochet classes occasionally, usually a couple of times a year. Crossen plans to teach a class this summer for the Swope Art Museum’s children’s art series on knitting and fiber.
“It’s a little hard for kids much before the age of 8 to do. Just their hands aren’t quite ready, and their attention span isn’t quite there, but once that’s there, they actually take to it very quickly … especially if they’re motivated. They don’t overthink it like adults do,” Crossen explained.
Burson enjoys passing along her love of the craft to members of her family. “I just taught my daughters,” she said. “They used to knit, just the straight knit when they were little, but now they’re interested in it and they like the hats and the scarfs, and they’re easy. And then, once you learn those, it really helps you go on to other things, ’cause you learn the stitches. I’ve taught my grandsons to knit. I’ve got two little grandsons that are 8 and 9 that both knit. They knit hats and scarfs.”
Burson said her grandchildren enjoy the craft. “They could learn real easy, you know.” She explains that some projects are more easily accomplished with small fingers. When she was knitting socks with tiny needles on a recent night, she asked her grandson for some help.
He “could do it easier than I could, and he sat there and knitted and knitted and knitted on my socks. He’s 9. He had no trouble with those little tiny needles. They love to do it,” she said.
How do you get started?
River Wools also offers “learn to knit” classes for the beginner.
“Start off with a scarf, and maybe a little hat,” Burson advised.
You can certainly find what you need at the shop. “We have books; we have tools,” Crossen said.
Knitting steadily, a person could finish a project like a scarf in a relatively short amount of time, Crossen said. Some knit faster than others, she added.
“People tend to be one of two categories — project knitters and process knitters. I’m really a project knitter. I work on a project and that’s how I’m drawn to it. I might be drawn in by the yarn, but then I’m looking for the project.” And for process knitters, “basically the yarn sort of speaks to them and they just may pick it up and start working with it and see what comes out of it. It kind of depends on who you are,” she said.
Crossen said socks are popular, especially this time of year. Socks are a great first knitting project.
“People tend to think … you’re amazing if you can do it, and it really isn’t that hard. But it’s very satisfying. People also think they’re not going to feel very nice, but then they wear them and they’re like … ‘Oh, could you make me some more?’ They’re very comfortable,” she said.
The types of knitting needles are “a matter of personal preference, partly, and also different yarns interact differently with the materials, too,” said Dara Middleton of Terre Haute, another frequent River Wools knitter.
Murphy agreed. The yarn will stick more to the wooden needles; it’s slick on the metal needles. “When I’m doing mohair or lace work, I don’t want my yarn to just slide along. I have a little more control of the yarn with the wood needle.”
If you get frustrated, “generally give yourself a break, and whatever it was that wasn’t working suddenly works itself out magically” when you come back to it, she said.
Beginners may simply be curious. A beginner class is a good place to get a feel for the craft.
“I think people are also looking for something they … can complete … and feel a sense of accomplishment. This is certainly one of those avenues that allows them to do that,” Crossen said.
“Back in medieval times, when a girl was engaged to be married, she would always knit her [groom] a wedding garment and he wore it to the wedding, and she always knit a strand of her hair into it, so that they were bound together for eternity,” Murphy said.
Perhaps that’s the underlying thread to knitting: being bound by a craft, a gift or to a community of friends.
“The personal feel, the fact that I can knit love into every stitch,” Murphy said, is what makes the finished product more than just a piece of clothing. It’s a story, the thought, the skill and the hours of time woven into it.
“I have a good friend [who] used to live here in Terre Haute,” Murphy said. “We were best buddies. She has knit me a shawl and a pair of gloves and when I’m really missing her, I wrap myself up in the shawl.” A knitted gift is “very special,” she said, “because they took the time to think about you for one thing, to find just the right yarn, the right pattern and then the time … to do it.”
Alicia Morgan can be reached at (812) 231-4298 or alicia.morgan@tribstar.com.
Want to learn more?
• River Wools carries a variety of yarns, needles, tools, accessories, patterns and books for knitting and crocheting. To learn more about knitting, visit the store at 671 Wabash Ave., call (812) 238-0090 or 1-866-889-6657 or go online to riverwools.com. The business also has a Facebook page.
Coming up
• Want to learn to knit? Attend class from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 6, 13 and 20.
• Knit magic loop socks from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2, 9 and 16.
• Knit a felted hat from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2, 9 and 16.
• Knit an ear flap hat from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 and 16.
• One Sunday a month, come and knit socks during Sock Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 21 and March 21.
• Attend Open Knitting starting at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursdays. People can come in at any time.
• For a complete list of classes and events, visit riverwools.com.
First Fridays
Feb. 5: Hat’s Off. Bring your favorite knit hat or hat pattern. A favorite will be chosen at 7 p.m.
March 5: Freeform Weaving Demo at 7 p.m., plus the start of the HandPainted Knitting Yarns Trunk Show. The show will include a variety of yarns and projects created from the yarns.
